Machine for plaiting or goffering fabrics.



No. 637,865. Patented Nov..l2^s, |a99.

n J. A'. anneau. v MACHINE FOB PLAITING 0R GOFFERINGVFABRICS.

(Application led Apr. 19, 1899.) No Model.) v 4 sham-sheet v /N vE/v ron Tn: nonms mens co. Mmmm., wumumon, o, c.

No. 637,865. Patented Nuv. 213.18m.l

.1. A. anneau. MACHINE FOR PLAITING 0B GUFFEBING FABRICS.

(Application med Apr. 19, 1899.) f (No Modal.) l 4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

A TTOHNE YS NO- 637,865. Patented Nov. 28, i899.

.L A; GnoEBL-l. MACHINE FUR PLAITING 0R GOFFERING FABRICS.

(Application filed Apr. 19, 1899.) (No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 3.

A-TTOHN E YS No. 637,865. Patentedlfuav. 2a', 1899.

J. A. snol-:SLL MACHINE FUR FLITING 0B GFFERING FABRICS.'

(Applicsition led Apr. 19,1899.) (No Model.) 4 sheets-Sheet 4.

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A TTOHNEYS NITED STATES PATENT Fries.

JOSEPH A. GROEBLI, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE KURSHEEDT MANUFACTURIN G COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

srncrFrcA'rroN forming para of Letters Patent No. 637,865, dated November 2s, 1899.

v Application flied April 19. 1899.

To all whom, it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. GnonBLi, re-y siding in the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of New-York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Plaiting or Goifering Fabrics, of

which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to machines for plaiting or gofferingfabrics in the piece; and it consists in a machine having a traveling heated surface with a wire or band impinging thereon and moving therewith and a fabrie-reeing device `located at about the point of entry of the fabric between the heated surface and wire.

Other features of the invention will be pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings I have shown a machine in which my invention is embodied.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of the machine. Fig. 2 is a front view or elevation thereof looking in the direction of travel of the fabric. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional elevation, the section being takenon line 3 3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4: is an end view of the machine looking from the right-that is to say, in the direction of the arrow on Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detail front view of a fabric-guide employed when narrow goods are operated upon; and Fig. 6 is a section on line 6a 6a of Fig. 5, showing the fabric-guide in section.

Before describing the machine in detail I would state that in general the machine embodies a moving hot cylinder or surface with lengths of wire bearing upon a portion thereof and traveling at a rate of speed about equal to the surface speed of the cylinder or surface. The goods enter and are carried along between the cylinder and the wires and are laterally shirred, plaited, or goffered by what I term reeling-wheels, which travel at a greater rate of speed than the cylinder, producing plaits or puckers in the fabric at or about the point where the goods enter between the cylinder and the wire bearing upon the surface thereof. The remainder of the machine consists of various mechanical organisms for imparting motion to the cylinder, wire, and reefing wheel or wheels and for suitably guiding and drying the fabric. I

Serial No. 713,552. (No model.)

have also shown a means forapplying a cord to the plaited or goffered fabric in the recesses or depressions therein produced by the reefing-wheels or wire.

In the drawings, A designates the frame of the machine, upon which the parts are supported. B indicates the cylinder, which receives heat from a suitable heating device, (shown herein as'a suitable gas-burner C.) The cylinder is journaled in the frame A and is provided with a peripheral gear D, from which motion is imparted to the rollers for pro* pellin g the wire. E is the driving-shaft of the machine, from which motion is transmitted to the various parts. This shaft E is provided with a driving-pulley e, which is suitably driven by a belt c', and is further provided with a pinion e3, which'meshes with a gear e4 on the shaft The shaft n: drives two independent sets of mechanism, one being the cylinder B, which drives the wire-rollers and the cord-attaching rollers, and the other the train of gearing which drives the reeiing wheel or wheels. -To the shaft .fc is secured a pinion e2, which meshes with the gear D of the cylinder B, and the gear e4 on` the same shaft meshes with the intermediate gear e5, which in turn meshes with the gear e on the shaft e?, upon which the reelingwheels es are mounted. The shaft c7 is capable of a slight lateral adjustment, which is effected by slides e9, working in guides ew, provided with adj listing-screws en, preferably acting against springs placed in the slides e9. A series of rollers a b c d, Fig. 3, are journaled in the frame of the machine, over which rollers the wire is carried, being wound partly around said rollers. These rollers are driven from the cylinder-gear D at the same surface speed as the said cylinder, the shafts of the rollers being provided with pinions a b' c d', respectively, which mesh with the cylinder-gear D, and are thus driven at the same peripheral speed as the cylinder-gear. The shaft d2 of one of these rollers is provided with a pulley d3, which is connected by a belt d4 with apulley f', which is carried on a shaft f at. the top of the machine. The shaft f (see Fig. 2) is provided with a pair of wiredrums f2 f3, which receive and carry the ends ofthe wire. The drum f3 is secured to the IOO ease shaft, while the drum f2 is mounted loosely thereon and is provided with a suitable strapbrake or other brake device f4, which serves to keep the Wire under tension.

In myimproved machine I employ one continuous length of Wire i, which is Wound off of one drum-say the drum f2-passes through the machine back and forth around the rollers c b c d, through guide l', and is wound onto the drum f3 in acontinuous manner, adjacent lengths of wire being arranged in pairs to coincide with the grooves cl2 in the reefing- Wheels e8, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5. By reference to the plan View, Fig. 1, and also to the front elevation, Fig. 2, it Will be seen that the single continuous wire is Wound in such a manner in the machine as to present the effect of a number .of continuous endless bands of wire. I prefer to use a single continuous length of Wire, as a construction einbodying a number of separate endless bands has many drawbacks, as I have ascertained by experiment. The course of the Wire in the machine is as follows, particular reference being had to Fig. 3: In this figure the wire t' upon coming off the drum f2 passes around part of the circumference of the roller b, around the portion of the circumference of the cylinder intervening between the points g h, thence around part of the circumference of the roller d, thence around part of the circumference of the roller o, thence aroundv part of the circumference of the roller a., thence around part of the circumference of the roller Z9, again to the drum and rollers d c a b, dac., in succession through the machine. When the Wire has thus been threaded through the machine to the opposite end, (see plan view, Fig. 1,) it is then passed through guide Z to the drumf3 and secured thereto, so that when the various parts of the machine rotate the wire will be removed from the drum f2, passed through the machine as indicated,and finally Wound upon the drumfs.

It will be understood that when the main shaft of the machine is rotated the drums, cylinder, reefing-Wheels, and rollers will be rotated in the direction of the arrows in Fig. 3, the wire moving in the same direction at the same rate of speed and that the reeiing wheel or wheels, which im pinge upon the fabric on the drums, will receive a greater peripheral speed of rotation than the surface speed of the cylinder. The fabric-guide la is clearly shown in Figs. 3, 5, and 6. Usually there are several fabric-guides when several strips of fabric j are being operated upon, which fabric-guides are carried by a bar 7c', extending across the machine and carried by brackets or supports 7a2. These fabric-guides are preferably for certain classes of work of the general form shown in Fig. G-that is to say, in the form of a flattened tube having the internally-projecting rib 7c3. A steambox F may be employed to steam or moisten the goods immediately before they enter the machine, which goods may be guided in front of the steam-box by a guide-bar Z. A series of heated cord-attaching rollers m may be provided upon a suitable support m in the' vicinity of the cylinder and arranged to bear upon the fabric being operated upon on the cylinder and supplemented by cord-guides m2, which guide gummed or nxoistened cords n to the cord-attaching rollers. The machine is primarily designed to produce a goffered or puckered fabric having lines of lateral plaits intervening between puckered portions. The lines of plaits or folds are produced by the conjoint action of the reeling-wheels and the cylinder and the wire.

In the drawings I have shown a number of narrow fabrics being operated upon by the machine, and in this instance the puckered portion forms the center of the fabric, being produced therein by the rib 7a3, which puckered portion is flanked on either side by plaited or folded portions produced by the agency above mentioned. In the normal operation of the machine the fabrics j (see Fig. 4) pass in front of the steam-box F and are thereby steamed or moistened, pass under the guide-bar Z, and thence to the cylinder, passing beneath the reeing-wheel (see Fig. 3) and being held firmly to the cylindei` between the points g and h by the wires, thence pass downward beneath the roller d and are delivered at the point o. The reeflng wheel or wheels, as before stated, travel at a greater rate of speed than the cylinder, and thereby reef, fold, or plait the fabric laterally along lines running longitudinally of the fabric. It will be understood that the reefing-Wheels may be replaced by equivalent mechanism Without departing from the spirit of my invention and that the heat of the cylinder serves to dry the fabric, and thereby fix the plaits and puckers therein. y

What I claim, and desire to secure by Let-l ters Patent, is

1. In a machine of the character described;

the combination of a heated surface, Wires bearing upon the said surface with means for driving the Wires and the heated surface and a fabric-reeling device located immediately in front of the point where the heated surface and wires contact with each other, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a heated surface, Wires bearing upon the said surface with means for driving the Wires and the heated surface at the same rate of speed, and a fabric-reeiing device located at or near a place or point Where the heated surface and wires contact with each other, and a suitable fabric-moistening device and a fabricguide for respectively moistening and guiding the fabric.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating heated cylinder, a wire bearing upon a portion of the surface of said cylinder, means for driving the wire and cylinder at the same rate of speed IOO IIC

and a reefing Wheel or Wheels for reefing or puckering the fabric and means for driving the reefing-Wheel at` a greater rate of speed than the surface speed of the cylinder, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

4. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a plurality of drums, a moving heated su rface and a continuous Wire passing through the machine back and forth over a portion of the heated surface, said Wire being so secured at one end to each drum as to be driven thereby, whereby the Wire will be Wound ed one drum, traverse the machine and be Wound on the other drum, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating heated cylinder, a continuous Wire carried back and forth over a portion of the surface of the said cylinder with means for driving the said cylinder and Wire, adjacent individual lengths of the said Wire moving in the same direction traversing the cylinder being arranged in' pairs and reefing- Wheels coperating individually with the pairs of lengths of Wire and means for driving the said reefing Wheel or wheels at a higher rate of speed than the surface speed of the cylinder.

6. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating heated cylinder, a Wire traversing a portion of the length of the said cylinder With means for driving the said Wire at the same speed as the surface speed of the cylinder and a reefing Wheel or Wheels located at or about the point of entry of the goods between the Wire and the cylinder and means for driving the reeng Wheel or Wheels at a higher rate of speed than the surface speed of the cylinder, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

JOSEPH A. GROEBLL Witnesses FRED A. KURsHEEDT, HARRY M. TURK, GEO. E. MORSE. 

